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#214081 - 01/01/11 07:35 PM Two ice water rescues
dougwalkabout Offline
Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
Below are links to two ice water rescues that occurred over the last couple of weeks. Sadly, despite the courageous efforts of passers-by, not everyone made it out alive. Condolences to the families.

Many valuable lessons here. First and foremost, I think, are the rapid and devastating consequences of immersion in very cold water. Second is the fact that any of us could be the first responder to a situation where others' lives hang in the balance.

Vehicle hits black ice, plunges into ice-covered reservoir:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Snow...6928/story.html

Man plunges through ice in canyon:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Calgary+brother+rescue+hiker+from+water+trap/3983406/story.html

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#214090 - 01/01/11 10:24 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: dougwalkabout]
BigToe Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 01/04/08
Posts: 81
Two very dramatic and instructional stories! The reservoir story makes me feel better about having LifeHammers in every car and keychain ResQMe tools for all family members.
_________________________
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau

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#214150 - 01/02/11 05:26 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: BigToe]
PackRat Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 09/23/05
Posts: 56
This hit close to home as I grew up with one of the victims of the reservoir accident. I would like to thank all those who stopped to helped at much risk to their own lives.

Having traveled the reservoir road often I sit here wondering what I would/could do in a similar situation.

I carry a rescue knife attached to my seatbelt but having crossed ice cold rivers in winter and know how quickly your motor skills become impaired and I am thinking that my knife would be too hard to manipulate with cold hands.

What rescue tool options are available that might be used with impaired dexterity?

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#214213 - 01/03/11 05:53 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: PackRat]
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
"What rescue tool options are available that might be used with impaired dexterity?"

A decent crowbar? Not the flat kind, which are hard to hold onto, but those octogon-shaped ones. Bash and pry.

Sue

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#214222 - 01/03/11 07:19 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: PackRat]
dougwalkabout Offline
Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
Originally Posted By: PackRat
This hit close to home as I grew up with one of the victims of the reservoir accident.


It can be hard to come to terms with a tragedy like this. My sympathies.

In other news articles, the impromptu rescuers state that they were grappling with difficult choices -- trying to help without becoming casualties themselves. They were understandably deeply upset that they couldn't get everyone out.

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#214224 - 01/03/11 07:26 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: dougwalkabout]
Dagny Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 11/25/08
Posts: 1918
Loc: Washington, DC
Thanks, Doug, for these links.

That Edmonton Journal story is so very sad. A significant part of what I carry in my vehicle (large First Aid kit, 36" pry bar..) is primarily in case I happen upon someone else's crisis.

Best wishes to the survivor and kudos to the passerby who risked their lives to help.

“A woman was running down the road asking for a knife. I grabbed my axe and yelled at my fiancee to get the rope,” said McDonald, a filmmaker who had been snowshowing in the area.


That second article from Banff is also gripping. If ever presented with such a situation I hope I have what it takes -- gear-wise, gut-wise and ingenuity-wise -- to help.

A fallen tree limb, a borrowed dog's leash and the know-how of two brothers saved a severely hypothermic man trapped in icy water near Banff.


This conjured memories for me of the January 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac (after it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge (I-395). The crash happened amidst a major snowstorm. The bridge was jammed with traffic (people died in cars, too). The river was covered in ice, the water was just one degree above freezing. A few people survived the crash only to live the horror of freezing and drowning. A Park Police helicopter came to the rescue in a blinding snowstorm and a civilian named Lenny Skutnik who dove in to save a woman on the verge of drowning -- she'd been in that freezing water for 30 minutes. "It feels like knives in you to be that cold...."

President Reagan lauded in him in the State of the Union address two weeks later. A heroic passenger perished after forgoing rescue efforts to help fellow passengers. The bridge is now named for him. Still gripping video to watch. Brrrr! Half an hour later there was a subway crash that killed four. Terrible day in DC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASBb-oMT5EU


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#214290 - 01/04/11 07:16 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: dougwalkabout]
dougwalkabout Offline
Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
Looking at other news stories, I just realized that the SUV flipped before it sank. That makes egress and rescue infinitely more difficult. It's a nightmare scenario.

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#214335 - 01/05/11 09:51 AM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: Dagny]
Ann Offline
Newbie

Registered: 01/04/11
Posts: 42
Loc: Western Washington
Originally Posted By: Dagny
This conjured memories for me of the January 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac (after it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge (I-395). The crash happened amidst a major snowstorm. The bridge was jammed with traffic (people died in cars, too). The river was covered in ice, the water was just one degree above freezing. A few people survived the crash only to live the horror of freezing and drowning. A Park Police helicopter came to the rescue in a blinding snowstorm and a civilian named Lenny Skutnik who dove in to save a woman on the verge of drowning -- she'd been in that freezing water for 30 minutes. "It feels like knives in you to be that cold...."


Thanks for sharing that link....what an awful tragedy and gripping testimony of survival and heroism.

Watching that, I found myself wondering if the onlookers were close enough to throw a line if they had something inflatable nearby to help? I really have no idea, but on first glance it appears to me that if you had something like the Aerovest on hand it might have been possible to inflate it, attach some paracord and throw it out there to see if you could pull a person or two to shore. I know that one woman was too injured to hang on and would have died were it not for the man who swam in to help her, but the others seemed somewhat able to hang on, and I'm just thinking that with enough paracord and something that floats--maybe even a bunch of empty plastic water bottles--there might have been a safe way for onlookers to help, or at least attempt it.

I realize the Aerovest is not a flotation device, but I'm curious as to its capacity to be used for an impromptu throw ring in an emergency situation. I have no firsthand experience with it (and no affiliation, BTW) so I'm just thinking out loud here.

Perhaps it would not need to be something that helps them float, just something that floats enough so they can grab a hold of the attached line and be pulled in?

I really don't know, just thinking.

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#214351 - 01/05/11 02:19 PM Re: Two ice water rescues [Re: Ann]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
Anything would be better than nothing; it would only need to be buoyant to be beneficial. Some kind of line would be nice, hopefully a bit stronger and easier to handle than paracord.
_________________________
Geezer in Chief

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